Although European and African efforts to reduce irregular migration have successfully lowered overall numbers entering Europe, some migrants are transiting increasingly hazardous smuggling routes across the Sahara Desert and Mediterranean Sea, risking human rights abuses and indefinite detention. The UN’s voluntary humanitarian return program assisted over 19,000 migrants to return to their home countries from Libya in 2017, up from around 3,000 assisted migrant returns from Libya in 2016. An estimated 400,000–700,000 migrants live in detention in Libya.

Total number of Syrian refugees in the region:5,069,463 (UNHCR, Government of Turkey May 11, 2017)

13.5 million people are estimated to be in need of assistance in Syria, including more than 6.3 million internally displaced persons (IDPs), in addition to significant reported displacement since Sep. 2016. (Source: UN OCHA, Sep. 2016)

Syrians fleeing conflict and violence are being internally and externally displaced. This map identifies IDP sites in Syria, official refugee camp locations in Turkey, Jordan, and Iraq, as well as areas in Lebanon, Turkey, Jordan, and Iraq where sizable concentrations of Syrians are living in urban areas. It also shows numbers of externally displaced Syrians reported in the neighboring countries, as well as in Egypt and North Africa with charts to illustrate numbers of Syrian refugees in neighboring countries and living in camps or outside camps.

Syrians fleeing conflict and violence and insecurity are being internally and externally displaced. This map identifies IDP sites in Syria, official refugee camp locations in Turkey, Jordan, and Iraq, as well as areas in Lebanon, Turkey, Jordan, and Iraq where sizable concentrations of Syrians are living in urban areas. It also shows numbers of externally displaced Syrians reported in the neighboring countries, as well as in Egypt and North Africa with charts to illustrate numbers of Syrian refugees in neighboring countries and living in camps or outside camps.

In recent weeks, the upsurge of Syrians seeking asylum in European countries has overwhelmed existing capacity. According to UNHCR, as of July 2015 almost 350,000 Syrians have applied for asylum in Europe since the conflict in Syria began, nearly half applying in Germany and Sweden and one third in Serbia, Hungary, Austria, Bulgaria, and the Netherlands combined.

Instead of the usual depiction of conflicts
as countrywide and defined by national boundaries, this map displays distinct
conflict-affected areas in Africa as sub-national and transnational pockets
of insecurity, violence, and armed aggression. Areas of conflict
were drawn around locations of reported conflict incidents in 2007 and
2008, as well as concentrations of internally displaced persons and cross-border
rebel bases and refugee camps in neighboring countries.